Birth— 1923
Where—Bulandshahr, India
Education—M.A. Urdu, Meerut College

Bibliography

• Mavraa (1940)
  ماورا

• Iran Main Ajnabi (1955)
  ایران میں اجنبی

• La Musawi Insaan (1969)

  لا مساوی انسان

• Gumaan ka Mumkin (1976)
  گمان کا ممکن

Biography

Memoirs

Critique/Review of Works

Biography

Nazar Muhammad Rashid (1910 – 1975) commonly known as Noon Meem Rashid (ن۔ م۔ راشد) or N.M. Rashed, was born as Nazar Muhammad Janjua at Alipur Chatha District Gujranwala, Punjab, Pakistan. He was an influential Pakistani poet of modern Urdu poetry. Along with Miraji, N M Rashid is considered as father of modernism or free verse in Urdu poetry.

G.C. Lahore

Rashed attended Government College in the city of Lahore, where he received a BA with honors in Persian in 1930 and an MA in economics in 1932. He quickly established himself within the literary circles of Government College, editing the college magazine Rāvī and pioneering free verse.

At GC Lahore his contemporaries include Faiz who states that while at Government College Rashed showed him the possibilities of poetry and greatly influenced his own style. Faiz describes Rashed’s voice as always separate and individual, both on account of his temperament and the fact that “he would not stay at one place.”

He studied English literature with Ahmed Shah “Patras” Bokhari (1898– 1958), a popular writer and Cambridge graduate, who would later become Rashed’s superior both at All India Radio and at the United Nations.

Khaksar Movement

Following his graduation, Rashed attempted to make a living out of literature and tutoring, but eventually had to take a job at the commissioner’s office in Multan. In December 1935, he married his maternal cousin, Ṣafiyah, and had children. While working in Multan, Rashed became an active member of the primarily Muslim Ḳhāksār movement, which emphasized military- style discipline and social service and aspired to free India from the British. Rashed’s involvement in this organization was enthusiastic, but brief.

All India Radio

Like many South Asian literati of his generation, Rashed began a career in radio and then joined the army. From 1939 to 1941, he worked at All India Radio, first at Lahore and then in Delhi. There he published his first collection of poetry, entitled Māvarā (The Beyond) in 1941.

British Indian Army

From 1943 until 1947, he took up a temporary army commission with the rank of captain in the Inter- Services Public Relations Directorate of the British Indian Army.

He began in Delhi, and then spent time in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Jerusalem, and Ceylon. Rashed’s experiences in Iran became the subject of his second collection of poetry, Īrān meñ ajnabī (A Stranger in Iran), which he published in 1957. After leaving the army in 1947, he returned to All India Radio, working as a director in Lucknow. With the Partition of British India, All India Radio also split in two. Rashed elected to serve in Pakistan, where his family lived. He moved up the ranks in Radio Pakistan in various locations— Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi.

United Nations

In 1952, Rashed joined the United Nations as an information officer, a post that would take him to a number of countries in his later life. He lived in New York until 1956, then Jakarta until 1958, and Karachi from 1958 to 1961. Just before returning to New York in 1961, his wife passed away. Two years later, he married Sheila Angelini, an Italian- British teacher. He returned to Tehran in 1967 and remained until 1973, where he gave numerous lectures in Persian, which he spoke fluently, as well as a number of interviews about his own writing. He also wrote extensively in Urdu about modern Persian poetry. In Iran, Rashed completed his third collection, Lā = Insān (X = Human) in 1969.

Death

Though he had earlier hoped to return to Pakistan, Rashed retired to Cheltenham, England. One of the main considerations Rashed mentioned was the comfort of his wife. There he spent time writing and researching. Shortly before his death, he completed his fourth volume of poetry, Gumāñ kā mumkin (The Possibility of Supposition). Rashed passed away from a heart attack on October 9, 1975. Contrary to the burial practices preferred in Islam, his body was cremated.

Family and children

Rashed’s first wife Safia died in 1961 at the age of 46, of an incorrectly administered B-complex injection in Karachi.

His second marriage, to Sheila Angelini, an Italian, took place in 1964.

Rashed had several children. His eldest Nasrin Rashed lives in Islamabad and is retired from her work with the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation. The second daughter Yasmin Hassan resides in Montreal, and has two children, Ali and Nauroz. His nephew (sister’s son) and son-in-law (Yasmin Hassan’s husband) Faruq Hassan was a teacher at Dawson College and McGill University. The third daughter, Shahin Sheikh, now deceased, lived in Washington and worked for the Voice of America.

His eldest son Shahryar died on 7 December 1998, serving as the Pakistani Ambassador to Uzbekistan. The younger, Nazeil, lives in New York.

Memoirs

My Abijan, Noon Meem Rashed By Yasmin Rashed Hassan
My Abijan, Noon Meem Rashed was born in Alipur Chattha in the province of Punjab on August 1, 1910.  He did his BA (honors) in Persian and MA in Economics from Government College Lahore.  During this period he was also the editor of the College magazine, the Ravi.  His first job was as a clerk in the Commissioner’s Office in Multan

ن م راشد – اے حمید کی یادیں
راشد صاحب ہر ایک سے اپنی مخصوص دلکش اور شرمیلی مسکراہٹ کے ساتھ بات کرتے۔ ہنستے تو اُن کے چھوٹے چھوٹے دانتوں کی قطاریں دکھائی دیتیں۔ کسی لطیفے پر قہقہہ لگاتے، تو سر پیچھے کو کر لیتے۔ فارسی کے شعر بہت سناتے تھے۔ انہیں سینکڑوں فارسی کے شعر یاد تھے۔ میں ریڈیو سٹیشن کے لان اور سٹوڈیوزمیں گھومتا پھرتا رہتا تھا،ایک دن میں نے ایک کمرے میں میرا جی کو دیکھا۔ عجیب قسم کے رومال کو گلے میں با ندھے کرسی پرپائوں رکھے، ایک خالی کمر ے کی میز پر بیٹھے تھے

 ن۔م۔راشد کے ’کریا کرم‘ کی کہانی ساقی فاروقی کی زبانی
میری خوش قسمتی ہے کہ جدید اردو شاعری کے دو بڑوں سے خاصے گہرے تعلقات رہے ۔ ہر چند کہ یہ دونوں عمر میں مجھ سے بیس پچیس سال بڑے تھے اور شاعری میں اپنا مستقبل بنا چکے تھے مگر ہماری محبتیں سرعت سے اس لیے بھی بڑھیں کہ اردو کی قدیم و جدید شاعری ایک طرح سے قدرِ مشترک تھی۔ وہ دونوں مجھ سے زیادہ جانتے تھے مگر بیس انیس ہی والا فرق تھا۔ پینسٹھ پینتیس والا نہیں ۔

Ijaz Batalvi and Noon Meem Rashed
In the summer of 1976, Qayyum Nazar arrived in London, keen to find out whether Noon Meem Rashed, who had died a year earlier, had been cremated at his own wish or if it was his Italian wife Sheila’s decision. He told me that Rashed’s cremation had shocked everyone in Pakistan and he wanted Rashed’s name to be honoured and a memorial raised in his memory at Government College, Lahore.

Critique/Review 

ن ۔ م۔ راشد: صوت ومعنی کی کشاکش ’’لا= انسان‘‘ کے آئینے میں- شمس الرحمن فاروقی
ابناے وطن کی نظروں میں مطعون تو بے چارہ اردو کا نقاد ہے کہ جس شاعر پر قلم اٹھاتا ہے توصیفی کلمات کا انبار لگادیتا ہے۔ یا دشنام طرازیوں کا وہ رنگ دکھاتا ہے کہ ملاح پانی مانگنے لگیں۔ لیکن واقعہ یہ ہے کہ توصیفی کلمات کے انبار لگانے یا غیر متعین معنی رکھنے والے تعمیمی الفاظ کے دریا بہانے کا فن اس وقت مغربی تنقید نگاروں نے بھی اپنا رکھا ہے۔ Poetry Review کے ایک حالیہ پرچے میں ایک صاحب نے یہ اطلاع بہم پہنچائی کہ ٹی۔ ایس۔ الیٹ(T. S. Eliot) کے بعد ڈیوڈ جونز(David Jones) ہمارا عظیم ترین شاعر ہے

I Too Have Some Dreams: N.M. Rashed and Modernism in Urdu Poetry
A. Sean Pue
ai ʿishq- e azal- gīr-o- abad- tāb, mere bhī haiñ kuchh ḳhvāb
mere bhī haiñ kuchh ḳhvāb!
O love, embracing the Beginning and illuminating the End,
اے عشق ازل گیر و ابد تاب، میرے بھی ہیں کچھ خواب
میرے بھی ہیں کچھ خواب!
The lines above, from the free- verse poem “I Too Have Some Dreams” (Mere bhī haiñ kuchh ḳhvāb) by N. M. Rashed (Nażr-e Mu ammad Rāshid, 1910– 1975), introduce the central concerns of a crucial figure in the history of poetic modernism in Urdu. 

ن م راشد کے نام – انتظار حسین
انھیں دنوں ن م راشد کے حوالے سے دو کتابیں آئی ہیں اس مکتبہ فکر کی طرف سے جسے ہم اورینٹل کالج کے نام سے جانتے ہیں۔ ایک کتاب تحسین فراقی کی۔ انھوں نے اپنی پسند اور اپنے حساب سے راشد صاحب کی شاعری سے ایک انتخاب پیش کیا ہے۔ ان کی پسندیدہ نظمیں اور ان کی تشریح و تعبیر۔دوسری کتاب تحقیق کے خانے میں آتی ہے۔ اس کے مرتب ڈاکٹر محمد فخر الدین نوری ہیں۔ راشد صاحب نے جو اپنے دوستوں اور ہمعصروں کو خطوط لکھے ان کی بانگی ہم اب سے پہلے دیکھ چکے ہیں۔ یہ مجموعہ ان خطوط کا ہے جو راشد کے دوستوں اور ہمعصروں نے وقتاً فوقتاً انھیں لکھے ’مکاتیب بنام راشد‘۔ یہاں نواسی خطوط جمع ہیں جو  چودہ مشاہیر نے راشد صاحب کو لکھے۔

ن۔م۔راشد اور سبط حسن
ن م راشد کا شمار لفظ و معنی دونوں اعتبار سے سے جدید اردو شاعری کے بانیوں میں ہوتا ہے۔اب تک ان کے تین مجموعے ماورا، ایران میں اجنبی اور لا انسان شائع ہوچکے ہیں۔مدت گزری لاہور میں ہم ان کے پڑوسی تھے ۔پھر ایسا ہوا کہ او بہ صحرا رفت ومن ورکوچہ ہارسوا شدیم۔انہوں نے اس اثنا میں نیویارک، تہران اور خداجانے کس کس دیس میں ڈیرے ڈالے اور اب لندن میں مستقل سکونت اختیار کرلی ہے۔راشد صاحب بڑے عالم و فاضل بزرگ ہیں۔اردو ، فارسی، انگریزی اور دوسری کئی زبانوں کے کلاسیکی و جدید ادب پر ان کی گہری نظر ہے۔

Noon Meem Rashid: the universalist by Intizar Husain
The organisers of Urdu’s literary seminars don’t care in general to preserve in some form the papers read there. This is left at the mercy of the writers of those papers: if any of them think that their paper deserves to be preserved they may do so by getting it published in any journal. However, the Oriental College of Lahore occasionally publishes a collection of papers read in the seminar held under the auspices of this institution. In recent months I have received two such collections compiled by Dr Fakharuddin Noori.

Rethinking Modernism and Progressivism in Urdu Poetry: Faiz Ahmed Faiz and N. M. Rashed
By A. Sean Pue
Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984) and N. M. Rashed (1910-1975) are two of the most celebrated twentieth-century Urdu poets. Born within a year of each other, both poets began their literary careers at Government College in Lahore in the 1930s, yet took seemingly opposite literary paths. Commenting on their critical reception, Asif Farrukhi recently observed, “the two of them still seem to be interlocked with each other like Siamese twins, the kind of colliding and contrasting pairs Urdu critics love to compare, right from Mir and Sauda to Zauq and Ghalib and Nasikh and Atash down to Anis and Dabeer.”